In a mixture of gases each gas exerts a partial pressure proportional to its fraction: in air at , oxygen () has , carbon dioxide () . A gas dissolves in a liquid in proportion to its partial pressure (Henry’s law): water in equilibrium with air at holds of oxygen (, of gas), against () in the air itself. The partial pressure — the same in the water and the air at equilibrium — is what drives diffusion between media; the content is what a breather can extract. Carbon dioxide is twenty-five times more soluble than oxygen, so it is never the harder gas to exchange.
Biology · Glossary